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u/Gettin_Bi Israel 1d ago
My entire childhood consisted of well-meaning sabras wishing me a happy Silverster and me being like "isn't that the cat from Looney Toones?"
I GENUINELY had no idea what they were talking about. Snovim godom everyone
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u/MemeHedonism 1d ago
Lmao same, this cat is the first thing thst comes in mind
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u/Gettin_Bi Israel 1d ago
I was once told "how can you celebrate Silverster!? He was antisemitic!" and I legit couldn't understand what about the cat was antisemitic
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u/Haunting_Birthday135 Anti-Axis Forces 1d ago
That’s because the Sabras who wished it came from German speaking areas (Austria and Germany, mainly from the fifth Aaliyah in the 1930s) were they called it that. The other Sabras, such as Mizrahim didn’t.
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u/wolf550e 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don't believe that.
I believe Israelis were told about Sylvester in the 90s to say that the Russian Jews are antisemitic because they "celebrate the Pope who convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem". It was a campaign against the Aliya from the former USSR who were "not Jewish enough". Many were half bloods (or even less) and many full bloods didn't know any Yiddish, didn't know any Judaism, have never read the holy books, didn't even know how to keep Kosher (not just didn't observe Kashrut, but honestly didn't know how to do it), etc., basically completely assimilated.
This was because Soviet forced assimilation worked pretty well in the industrial cities, people were punished for showing any Judaism, people were afraid of teaching their children because the children might talk in school and then the parents would be punished.
I come from such a family: my father's father studied in a Yiddish school as a child, he knew prayers by heart at age 80, he taught his children nothing. My mother's grandfather had a paid place in a synagogue, his granddaughter knows no Yiddish or kosher recipes.
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u/vegan437 1d ago
I recall when the Russian kids didn't show up to school on 1.1, the school had them write an essay on Silvester's treatment of Jews, as punishment. They didn't understand why.
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u/Galimkalim 1d ago
That's cruel. I was in a religious school and parts of the class wouldn't show up on 1/1 and it was fine because the school understood it's just tradition and there wasn't anything religious about it, just a family gathering/celebration.
I've heard from friends that they got the stink eye from their (non religious) school when they would skip school because of the mimuna after pesach. Both celebrations were/are really common celebrations and I don't understand the mistreatment from schools.
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u/thewearisomeMachine Israel/UK 1d ago
Works for English speakers too
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u/Haunting_Birthday135 Anti-Axis Forces 1d ago
Wait until you hear that we call shrimp ‘shrimps’ here. All of that is an influence of the German-speaking Jews who lived in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa (mainly fled from the Nazis in the 1930s). They introduced the other Jews new terms that were adopted in German (such as die Schrimps) because English hasn’t penetrated the popular culture yet.
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u/thewearisomeMachine Israel/UK 1d ago
‘Shrimps’ is fine. Putting an extra syllable in ‘popcorn’ and ‘Lincoln’ is unacceptable.
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u/Cool-Courage-4681 1d ago
How else would you pronounce popcorn in Hebrew? 🤣
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u/thewearisomeMachine Israel/UK 1d ago
Without the extra syllable? WHY IS IT POPCOREN?
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u/Cool-Courage-4681 1d ago
Because of the way we speak Hebrew. The flow of the word makes the ר have a שווא נע. Pop-Koren flows a lot more naturally than pop-Korn.
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u/Ok-Construction-7740 5h ago
Do you mean. The templers who cam here during ottoman times
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u/Haunting_Birthday135 Anti-Axis Forces 4h ago
No. Jews from Berlin and Vienna who made aliyah a decade or so before the establishment of the state of israel, during the British mandate.
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u/ilivgur Israel 1d ago
Forcing that idiotic German name for new year's eve in Israel to distinguish it from Rosh Hashanah practically ruined the CIVIL holiday for countless of former-USSRniks in Israel.
All that incessant fuckery around Silvester being an antisemite and eating Jewish babies so how can someone Jewish celebrate eating jewbies???
There's literally no evidence that Saint Sylvester was an antisemite or that he was more antisemitic than his counterparts of that period in time. And yet, that stupid name for a civil occasion that just celebrates changing a number or two ended up painting Russian Jews as less, till this very day.
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u/themightycatp00 Israel 1d ago
Forcing that idiotic German name for new year's eve in Israel to distinguish it from Rosh Hashanah practically ruined the CIVIL holiday for countless of former-USSRniks in Israel.
Why would rosh hashanah ruin new years eve? They're not even operating on the same calendar, also this is a jewish country of course people will celebrate rosh hashanah
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u/BreadBoxGoomba 1d ago
as an Israeli Russian speaker, the first time I heard it I was confused. now am fine with it, in any case, happy Hanukkah and happy upcoming new year
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u/youlook_likeme 1d ago
In my 30 years living in Israel never have I heard, Israeli, wishing a Russian a happy silvester.
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